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And then I think of the date.
這時我想起了它的年代
This painting was done in 1670,
這幅畫創作于1670年
and that was a moment of tension and nervousness
當時荷蘭人在歐洲孤立無援
that the Dutch had about going it alone in Europe.
國內充滿了緊張與不安
You think, correctly, that the great powers out there,
你會正當地認為那些列強
jealous of your prosperity in the world,
嫉妒你在全世界繁榮興盛
are plotting against you,
對你居心叵測
England and France, as indeed they were.
英格蘭和法國正是如此
And, two years after this painting was done,
這幅作品完成兩年之后
the Dutch Republic was almost engulfed by a pincer movement
荷蘭共和國就幾乎被這兩個敵對國家的
between those two hostile states.
鉗形攻勢吞噬殆盡
And there's no doubt that that windmill,
毫無疑問 這座
with the light shining on it,
沐浴著陽光的風車
is a guardian against peril.
就是直面危險的衛士
The sails of the mill,
風車的帆葉
not accidentally, form the cross of the Redeemer.
有意組成了耶穌基督的十字架
There's a saviour, and the saviour is the windmill.
救世主確實存在 而他就是這座風車
And that cross, just in case you're wondering,
如果你想知道 這個十字
is echoed visually by an opening in the sky,
在視覺上和天空中的一個洞相呼應
down which this gorgeous light falls,
通過這個洞射入一道美麗的光
the only warm bit in the painting,
是畫中唯一一處暖色
and, if you're Dutch, you remember an old saying which says,
如果你是荷蘭人 你一定知道這樣一句諺語
"Just as a windmill needs the wind to move its sails,
就好像風車需要風來轉動
"so man needs the breath of God to act."
人類需要上帝的氣息來行動
The moral is never forget the word of God.
道德寓意永遠不要忘記上帝之言
You have a covenant with God.
你和上帝有個神約
You are his modern, chosen people.
你是他現代的選民
Just remember that when you look at the mill.
當你看到這個風車時請記住這點
When nations feel threatened,
當國家受到威脅
or when they're actually torn apart,
或被分裂
the sense of God-protected homeland,
上帝保護領土的感覺
somehow sheltered from catastrophe,
以某種方式從災難中幸存
comes swimming into view.
躍然眼前
Civil wars, as we've seen over and again,
頻繁發生的內戰
are the nurseries of great landscape painting.
是偉大風景畫的溫床
What held for the tight-bounded Dutch Republic,
適用于緊湊的荷蘭共和國的
looking heavenwards to its boundless skies,
這些望向無垠的天空
was magnified on a continental scale in the 1860s,
在十九世紀六十年代的一個大陸范圍內
in the bitterly divided American republic.
在經歷分裂苦難的美國中被放大
Though the American Civil War was in part a war about land
盡管某種程度上美國內戰是為了爭奪領土
and the right to extend slavery into new western territories,
和向西擴張領土推行奴隸制
